THE BRAND IS N. COUNTY, AND CEO AIMS TO SELL IT

to developers, investors and businesses looking to expand. Really, to anyone who will listen.

Morgan has been making the pitch since he joined the San Diego North Economic Development Council as CEO six months ago. The San Marcos-based nonprofit organization has a staff of three, receives public and private funds and is governed by a 24-member board of directors.

Under Morgan’s leadership, the council has expanded its representation to include cities and towns stretching from state Route 56 north to the Orange County line and east to mountain and desert villages bordering Imperial County.

The group is developing a branding campaign to make the region “pop off the map,” as Morgan puts it. He recently talked with U-T San Diego about North County and its maturing business landscape.

Q: Why did you want to lead the council?

A: A big part of it is I really like North County. The business environment is tremendous. It has amazing companies from biotechnology to medical devices and the defense industry, education, sports and active lifestyles and clean technology. The quality of life attracted me, too.

Q: What are North County’s emerging industries?

A: Fairly recent is the craft brewing industry. We’ve got a tremendous industry growing here, and it doesn’t seem to have an end to it. Existing breweries are expanding, and new ones are coming online every couple of months, it seems. I’m very happy to see that, because I’m definitely a craft beer fan. Our wine industry is growing, and certainly our sports and active-lifestyle sectors are growing.

Q: Your organization is working on a branding campaign for North County. Why does North County need a brand?

A: I think that North County has really suffered the loss of the North County Times and the North County tourism office. This organization really needed to shoulder that loss, and to work with all the cities and the unincorporated areas to really develop a regional brand. Best practices have taught us that the regions that thrive — the ones that investors gravitate to and site selectors put on their radar screen — are those that are working together collaboratively.

What we want to do is spotlight and showcase North County to site selectors, developers and investors. We want to make it top of mind, and we want to differentiate North County from the city of San Diego and market its assets in a strategic way.

Q: Are there some early results from that branding campaign?

A: For now, the tagline is: “Bring your business, leave the rest to us.” We’re going to develop that tagline and expand it to “Bring your family, leave the rest to us.” Or, “Bring your ideas, bring your innovation.” That tagline lends itself to doing all of those things in terms of a brand — keeping it simple, impactful.

Q: A lot of people think of San Diego County as one region. Why shouldn’t we have one chamber of commerce that could work on behalf of all of us?